Heads or Tails?
by Diego Varen
Summary: Originally written for The Mini Series on The Doctor Who Forum. Strange things are happening in the TARDIS. The Doctor has found a stowaway and Rose and Mickey find the infamous TARDIS library.


* * *

**Doctor** **Who**

**Heads or Tails?**

* * *

Aside from the gentle humming that could be heard from the enormous mushroom shaped centre console, it was quite quiet inside the console room of the time and space machine, the TARDIS.

Standing behind the console was the Doctor, overlooking the many buttons and switches. He had the whole of time and space to explore yet he didn't know where to go next. Of course, he'd asked his "current" travelling companions, Rose Tyler and Mickey Smith, but they couldn't suggest anything.

_Humans_, the Doctor thought to himself.

And then the Doctor had an idea and being him, he was sure that any idea that he thought up would work (it didn't always, but it was nice to feel a bit arrogant every now and again). After fiddling around in his jacket pockets, he found a pound coin and placed it on the palm of his hand. He looked up at his two companions and grinned.

"Heads or tails?" he asked, breaking the silence.

Rose and Mickey looked at each, confused at the question. The Doctor could tell what they were thinking. Surely, a genius like him wasn't going to resort to playing a game of heads or tails to pass the time?

"What?" Rose asked back, looking at the Doctor as if he was some sort of Muppet.

"C'mon choose!" the Doctor told her excitedly, "Heads or tails?"

"Tails?" Rose replied, unsure of what the Doctor had planned.

Still grinning like a loon, the Doctor threw the coin into the air and as it flew back down, he caught it in his other hand. After taking a quick peek, he put the coin back into his pocket and sped into action around the console, choosing the next place for the TARDIS to go.

"What was all that about?" Mickey asked Rose, as quietly as he could so the Doctor wouldn't hear.

But being the Doctor meant that he had heard what Mickey had been saying.

_Typical_, the Doctor thought, _it's always the idiot that asks the obvious question_.

But still, maybe Mickey wasn't the idiot this time around. After all, the Doctor did sometimes forget to explain things to the people that accompanied him on his travels and this was the perfect example of when he forgot to explain even the simplest thing.

"Well Rose just chose where we we're off to next," the Doctor explained, "And due to that, we're going to go somewhere unpredictable, somewhere we haven't been to yet."

"Like where?" Mickey asked.

"Somewhere that isn't London," the Doctor told him, as he began to reach for the pound coin yet again, "Now all we need to decide is whether we're going to the past or the future. So, Mickey, heads or…"

At this point, both Rose and Mickey lost their patience and sighed loudly.

"Can we just choose where to go, without using a pound?" Rose asked.

A bit shocked, the Doctor reluctantly returned the pound to his pocket.

"Perhaps we don't need to go anywhere just yet," the Doctor concluded, "Maybe, we just need to take a break for a bit, enjoy what time we're spending in the TARDIS."

"Like how?" Rose asked.

"You could give Mickey the grand tour of the TARDIS," the Doctor told her, "You could show him the TARDIS wardrobe, our bedrooms, the cupboard under the stairs…"

"Yeah, we get the idea," Mickey interrupted.

"Yes, well, how about you show him the library?" the Doctor suggested, "Neither have you have been down there before and it'd give me chance to decide where we're off to next."

Rose and Mickey were both intrigued at this proposition now, as the Doctor reached for something else from his pockets.

"Here's the library card," the Doctor explained, handing it to Rose, "It tells you how to get there from here and it lets you in there. That way, nobody can steal my signed copy of _Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows_. I really should get around to reading that sometime."

Now that the Doctor was just rambling, Rose and Mickey decided to leave him to it, as they walked off, excited at the prospect at seeing a library.

"Enjoy yourselves!" the Doctor shouted after them.

* * *

Even though the TARDIS felt like a second home to Rose, the sheer size of the ship's interior still felt overwhelming, even now. Beyond the console room, the TARDIS had many rooms, some of which you'd never expect to see in any ship, like libraries.

Still, she was intrigued at the thought of looking through a TARDIS library, seeing what books the Doctor owned.

But when she and Mickey finally found the TARDIS library, they were pretty surprised with what they saw. There was water everywhere and countless books were floating around.

"Wow," Mickey managed to say, "The Doctor really needs to sort this place out."

* * *

It had been five minutes, since Rose and Mickey had left the Doctor alone and already he was bored. Of course, he could've gone with them down to the library, but he'd seen it before and he wanted the two of them to find out more about the TARDIS, without his constant explanations.

No sooner, had he thought up a list of possible places to go than the TARDIS doors suddenly opened. A man wearing flamboyant clothes walked in and approached the Doctor.

"Nice place you've got here mate," the man began.

"What?" the Doctor asked.

"I said nice place you've got here," the man repeated, "Honestly, I'm starting to like this place already."

"What?" the Doctor asked again.

"I said I'm starting to like this place," the man repeated again, "So, where do I sign up for a position in Torchwood?"

That was the final straw.

"What!" the Doctor whispered loudly.

* * *

Rose and Mickey couldn't think of anything else to say. The bizarre sight of the TARDIS library had silenced them and they could do nothing, but look upon it strangely.

"I think we should tell the Doctor," Rose suggested to Mickey, "The Doctor might not have been down here for ages…"

"Relax," Mickey replied, "The Doctor isn't going to care about a small flood, is he?"

"A small flood?" Rose repeated, "Mickey, this is a catastrophe. His signed copy of _Harry Potter_ is in there somewhere."

Mickey's confidence in the situation dwindled slightly.

"Okay, we better get the books out of the water at least, before telling the Doctor," Mickey suggested.

And with that, the two of them started to pick up damp books and finding a spot to dry them off.

* * *

"Who are you?" the Doctor asked.

"Bill Stone, at your service," the stranger replied.

"Listen Bill, I have no idea what you're talking about," the Doctor told him, "This is my ship, the TARDIS, I don't even know who Torchwood are…"

"Hold on a minute, will ya?" Bill interrupted, "Some bloke off the street directed me here and he told me that this box thing was Torchwood. I couldn't believe that the main HQ was in here, until I walked in."

"Barged in, more like!" the Doctor shouted, "Now get out of my TARDIS!"

And with those words, the Doctor led the stranger to the doors and pushed him outside.

"I'd love to help you, I really would, but believe me, this isn't Torchwood or any sort of company."

The Doctor slammed the doors behind him and locked them, so the man couldn't get back in and he pressed some random coordinates that would take the TARDIS anywhere but where the TARDIS had landed.

_How could I be so out of character_, the Doctor thought, as he strolled around the console, _he was only looking for a job, after all and I just made his life harder instead of easier_.

"Doctor!" Rose shouted.

The Doctor looked up and saw Rose holding a wet copy of _Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows_.

"Don't tell me that the libraries flooded again," the Doctor asked.

Rose and Mickey nodded, silently.

"And my signed copy of _The Deathly Hallows_ too," the Doctor moaned, "Now I'm going to have to buy yet another copy and wait in the queue to get it signed."

"At least we know where we're going now!" Mickey shouted after the Doctor, as he stormed through the TARDIS.

* * *

**The End**

* * *


End file.
